Women's Home Internationals: Daring Irish upset the form book

By Lewine Mair

12:01AM BST 22 Aug 2002

Although they were trailing 1-2 at the end of the morning foursomes, a magnificent Irish team snaffled four of the six afternoon singles to defeat England 5-4 on the opening day of the Women's Home Internationals at the Berkshire.

Though the second match, in which Scotland defeated Wales by the odd point, was always expected to be close, most felt that the Irish captain Mary McKenna had been slightly optimistic when she said on Tuesday that her team could not only defeat England but win the entire event, even though they have only won it four times, in 1901, 1907, 1980 and 1986.

McKenna was ecstatic at yesterday's result. "It was no more than the girls deserved after working so hard on their fitness and their golf last winter," she said, but was quick to recall what happened in 1979. Then, they beat England, only for Scotland to come out on top at the end of the week. "We can not afford to be complacent," she said.

England, who have won the event nine times in the last 10 starts, were unlucky in that Rebecca Hudson was out of the singles with a stiff neck, but for the most part they lost to some great Irish golf.

It started with Alison Coffey in the top match against Emma Duggleby, whom she had partnered to a foursomes victory on the second day of the Curtis Cup. Coffey is a civil engineer with the Belfast Road Service, and ranks a concrete underpass she designed alongside winning the 2001 Irish championship. She was four under for 17 holes.

Her shot of shots came at the 452-yard 16th where she was in the rough off the tee, with Duggleby in one of those fairway bunkers which, with their attractive heather trim, are as wolves in sheep's clothing.

When Duggleby could do no more than splash out on to the fairway, Coffey hammered a wood from the long grass and on to the green, a shot of 185 yards.

Then two up with two to play, she matched Duggleby's four at the 17th to win by 2/1. The two hours and 35 minutes they had spent on the course were in keeping with the two hours and 48 minutes it took Colin Montgomerie and David Toms to play 18 holes first thing on the Sunday morning at this year's Open.

Montgomerie and Toms had presumably wanted to get away in a hurry but, in the case of Duggleby and Coffey, it was a more a matter of reacting to rounds in last week's US Women's Amateur, which had taken between five and six hours.

For a time it looked as if England would get just the one singles point, courtesy of Kirsty Fisher. As it was, Kerry Smith, three down after 12, won five holes in a row to defeat Darragh McGowan.

Scotland, who had not bagged a match in the series since they defeated the Welsh at Lahinch in 1997, were shaping to lose again yesterday, with Becky Brewerton starting with three birdies in four holes against Clare Queen.

Anne Laing was one Scottish heroine as she came from three down after four to halve with Kathryn Evans. Lynn Kenny was another. Kenny, who was playing the 19-year-old Sarah Jones in the final game, was three down after the 13th.

She made birdies at the 16th and 17th and was set to lose by no more than one hole when Jones missed a four footer at the 18th to make it a halved match and give Scotland a 5-4 victory.

The neatly uniformed teams made for some spectacle at a venue where, in the old Avia Foursomes, Douglas Caird, the organiser, once put up the following notice: "It would be appreciated if competitors did not look like sacks of potatoes."